In recent years, floppy discs have been introduced that utilize both planar surfaces thereof for information storage. Disc drives for such floppy discs utilize a pair of adjacent heads which are mounted on a carriage adapted to move the heads transversely across the disc whereby all of the tracks on both sides of the disc can be accessed. Generally, one of the heads is rigidly supported, while the other head is flexure mounted to a support arm that is cantilever mounted to the carriage by a flat flexure spring. A tensioned spring biases the cantilevered support arm downwardly toward the rigid or fixed head.
The door latch of the disc drive is coupled to a cantilever mounted disc clampling assembly. When the door latch is moved into its open position, the disc clampling assembly is in its upper position. In that position, the disc clamping assembly contacts a protruding finger of the cantilevered head support arm producing an upward force on the cantilevered support arm of sufficient magnitude to overcome the downward force of the tensioned spring whereby the support arm is lifted away from the fixed head. After a disc has been inserted between the heads, the door latch is closed. Such closure causes the disc clamping assembly to move to its lower position wereby it is disengaged from contact with the finger of the head support arm, permitting the tensioned spring to effect movement of the moveable head support arm toward the fixed head whereby the heads are loaded against opposing surfaces of the disc.
For several reasons, such as keeping dust or other contaminants out of the disc drive or facilitating shipment, it often occurs that the door latch of the disc drive is closed without a disc being inserted into the drive. Such closure without disc insertion causes portions of the heads to contact each other, and those contacting portions are generally flat. Due to that head geometry, molecular attraction forces may cause the heads to wring or stick together should they contact. Wringing of the heads may also result if a lubricant is present on the flat surfaces of the heads. Wringing of the heads is undesirable since a subsequent attempt to separate the heads may cause the moveable head to separate from its flexure mount.